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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Olympics are here! And not just in real life, or for most of us the boob tube. The London areas have a number of Olympic themed events. Plus the Flying Tigers have their Sports Festival. If the Olympics isn't your thing, "Jamm for Genes" is this weekend, in which numerous musicians perform live for charity. And of course there's our regularly scheduled lineup of book & poetry readings, club DJ events, talk shows, and church services.

Remember the video JJ Coronet made in Second Life for use by Duran Duran at the Olympics? Well, while performing at Hyde Park in front of a live audience estimated to be 70,000, the band used parts of the footage (appears at about 3:20 in the video). While not part of the main performances at the opening ceremonies, "it likely showed up in lots of news coverage around the world."

"The greatest gig ever Hyde Park in the VIP guest area Playing my video on screen in front of 70,000 people woohooo, Had a really great time big thanks to Chrissey and Gary for making it happen."

According to Hamlet Au, Coronet stated that some of the video will be in the Duran Duran CD "Diamonds in the Mind." He also told that while nothing's been confirmed yet, to expect more from the group involving Second Life content soon.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Grey Lupindo has been exploring once again in Second Life. She returned to Cap Estel, and found a picturesque Italian countryside. Created by Maurice Messmer, the place is masterfully done. It looks so real, one would think you could smell the vinyards.

To Phoenix fans, Tonya Southern of the Firestorm/Phoenix team has some less than pleasant news, "Viewer 1 is officially on borrowed time." In the latest post on her blog, she talked about a recent third-party viewer meeting with Oz Linden about some upcoming changes with Second Life. Specifically, Project Shinning. While it should stop "bake fail" in newer viewers, "it is incompatible with current viewers. … The result of the server-sized bake is that viewers that don't handle it will simply see gray avatars, with no way to fix them."

It was Tonya's opinion that the old Linden Lab Viewer 1, when this happens, will no longer be useable, along with third-party viewers not actively maintained. Aside from Singularity and possibly Cool VL, she didn't expect any other third party viewers based on Viewer 1 technology to continue, "Nobody else is developing a V1 Viewer any more."

And the Phoenix Viewer, which continues to be the most popular of the third-party viewers? Team Phoenix has yet to make a decision, but in Tonya's opinion, "it's time to say that we are not going to put any more effort into Phoenix."

"As far as I'm concerned, it's time to put Phoenix to rest. The developers don't like working in the codebase, as in many ways it's an unmaintainable tissue of hacks, the support team barely remembers how to run it, and Firestorm now provides essentially all of the function Phoenix has, and much more besides."

Tonya recognized this would be an unpopular change, especially those who won't or can't run Viewer 2 and 3 Viewers, but "there comes a point when making an old program run in a new environment simply isn't feasible." Her advice, those who vowed not to run Viewer 2 better change their mind or make plans to depart Second Life. Same thing with those with older computers, "Me? I'll be happily running Firestorm 5."

Tonya's post got a mixed reaction. While some agreed, others did not. It was similar with the article New World Notes did, people saying there was no way Team Phoenix would give up on the most popular Second Life Viewer.

If the Phoenix Viewer is becoming harder and harder for its team to work with, it may not matter much to them if they stop the updates. From the very beginning, they've been a volunteer project. Success or failure, they don't make any money, only prestige.

Fortunately for Viewer 2 haters, or those whom have no personal problems with it but their computers can't run it, Singularity and Cool VL are still out there, though Singularity hasn't had a Mac update recently. And what if down the road all V1-based Viewers stop working? For some, it'll be time to get out the credit card (though Mac lovers will feel a bigger bite on the wallet). Though it isn't hard to imagine some die-hard V2 haters, and sadly a few on older machines with limited budgets (or whom get sold a newer machine that performs worse), whom say farewell to Second Life. It should be interesting to see how many head to Opensim worlds.

A few days ago, "Star Wars the Old Republic" was given six nominations for the Annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards. But this seems to be the only good news for the once up and coming online game, which lately has had problems keeping up it's numbers of customers.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitello made the most interesting comment about the games recent troubles, "Our conclusion was we had a great product in Star Wars, but that the subscription model in the world of free-to-play was challenging." Indeed, there are reports that BioWare is considering going beyond the free trials to play the game to making it free to play. Riccitiello stated that EA was looking at "different models to bring in more users into the game," but would not confirm that a free-to-play one was in the works. The companies would only say, "In the weeks ahead, we will announce plans for growing The Old Republic with new content, new players, and new ways to play."

Hamlet Au commented that these troubles were a sure sign that the "pay to play" model for Massive Multiplayer Online Games was coming to a close, "if Vogel, one of the best MMO developers in the business, can't sustain a subscription-based MMO associated with the most well-known sci-fi fantasy franchise in the world, no one can." In my own opinion, I wouldn't say this means "pay to play" is over, but that "World of Warcraft" has pretty much cornered the market as it remains strong with millions of paying customers.

It should be noted that in recent months, World of Warcraft has been losing subscribers as well. The latest expansion, "The Mists of Pandaria" should help in the short term. The long term will require Blizzard being more successful at retaining customers than it currently is.

The following night at Club Zero Gravity was it's Comedy Night, with people dressing up in clown outfits, clown noses, cartoonish avatars, and one laughing hyena. And whom better to play the music than DJ Shockwave, whom entertained the dancers with songs from Ray Stevens, Weird Al, and a few of his own music parodies.

And Friday night was the Steelhead dance, this time on a floating platform held up by balloons. DJ Fuzzball, whom danced away with his partner Eugine, held the event in honor of Amelia Airheart, whose birthday it was.

Friday Night at Steelhead takes place at 7PM, but the location can vary.

Friday, July 27, 2012

One of the more popular places in Second Life is London City area, which offers a number of events. And when the real London has a celebration, it's often reflected here, such as the Queen's Jubilee earlier in the year.

On Friday July 27, the 2012 Summer Olympics begin in the real life London. In London City, the place has been decorated with Olympic symbols, and a stage has been set up for Olympic themed events. The opening ceremonies will be covered live, and presumably live coverage will continue throughout the games to their closing on August 12.Live coverage of the start of the London Olympics. Cash prize, the Parade and races for atheletes as they compete on the racetrack and Olympic sized swimming pool. Non-Stop party in the open air amphitheatre with top DJ's and acts. With competitions and prizes!

We hope you will join us on Friday, from 11am SLT (7pm UK) as we prepare ourselves for a month of fun activities, events, concerts and other special entertainment.

Is it true that London City will be holding an Olympic Egg'n'Spoon race? Of course.

This year Jamm for Genes in Second Life will feature 55 hours of live SL music hosted at three Australian run venues - Laceys Place, The Pocket and B&Bs. "It's an Australian charity, but the benefits of its research are global", says Organiser OhMy Kidd, (aka Matthew Davies, based in Canberra, Australia).Kidd aims to build on the success of previous years events, which in total have raised over $4,000 Australian dollars, to reach a target of 500 000 Linden in Second Life, equivalent to about $A2,000.

Jamm for Genes in Second Life is a group effort. Since 2007 on the first weekend in August a generous and growing team of volunteers, musicians and venues have been contributing their time and talents to raise funds for children's medical research at a series of Jamm for Genes concerts in the virtual world Second Life. "So many of the people who have volunteered to help have told me their personal or family stories of why they understand this charity is so important" says Kidd.

Proceeds from Jamm for Genes, and its parent event Jeans for Genes, support research into childhood and genetic diseases such as birth defects, cancer, and epilepsy by the Childrens Medical Research Institute. The event begins in Australia on the first Friday of August each year with "Jeans for Genes", a day where office workers shun their suits, sport their best denim, and give generously. Jamm for Genes supports the charity through live music in events ranging from office talent competitions to professional festivals throughout the weekend.

"I've been involved with Jamm for Genes since its inception. It's a terrific way to help create a brighter future for all children through the power of music." Glenn A Baker, Jamm for Genes Patron

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Grey Lupindo recently took a look at Glendale Community College, a Second Life reflection of the real-life college near Phoenix. The place has two main sections, a mountain retreat, and a Mexican village where one can practice his/her Spanish.

In an article written by Sarah Lacy for her online magazine Pandodaily, the writer came across Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab and Second Life. Rosedale talked about what the writer called, "the all too familiar hero-villian press cycle," about how national publications ignore companies in Silicon Valley until it's certain to be big, "then they make the founders into two-dimensional cover boy 'overnight' successes. … And then when it starts to fall apart, they either become evil or stupid. Either way, they're mocked, written off, and forgotten about."

It's never that simple for a startup, Lacy wrote, and certainly not for Second Life, which was praised as the next big thing, and then dismissed and mostly forgotten. It's audience had stopped growing, and "many consider anything that's not growth" or going pubic or sold, as "death."

Rosedale argued that contrary to what the national media might believe, Second Life didn't fail, it was a success. It currently has about a million active users, almost the same number it had at it's peak. when IBM and other companies were setting up places there. That the number never fell should still be considered a success "in a world were fads quickly come and go, especially with 700 million a year in virtual goods traded every year.

So why didn't the numbers grow, even with virtual worlds a success in other countries? Either Americans have a failure of imagination, "or he was way too early." Rosedale felt most people desire what they know, and if they can't get it can escape through other means such as TV, getting as Lacy put it "the culture that's already built for them, but without the responsibility to build it themselves."

As for being too early, Rosedale was proud to think that might be the case, "We were early to an idea that most people thought would eventually happen … What I'm most proud of is that we found a way to make that into a profitable company years earlier than it should have emerged, through our hard work."

In an economy all about continuous growth, Second Life might seem easy to ignore. But after ten years, it's still going and self-sustaining. Lacy commented if her company built that, "I'd still be damn proud of my team."

Xymbers Slade heard about two performance artists working on an event in Second Life: the Dance Queens Festival by Medora Chevalier and Trill Zapatero. While not a fan of dancing, he noted the two had an impressive reputation in Second Life's artist community and arranged to talk with them about their past work, as well as their current one.

Earlier this year, the SOPA and CISPA bills in Congress raised fears about Internet censorship and the loss of privacy. In a recent meeting of the FCA (Furry Club Alliance), a group of music clubs in Second Life, some DJs and club staff brought up some other Internet news from earlier this year. A number of Internet Service Providers were set to begin policing downloads on July 1st.

An article on Cnet.com in March discussed about an agreement between several ISPs and RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, to adopt policies to discourage illegal music and software downloads last year. The White House was also involved in the deal. "During a panel discussion before a gathering of US publishers here today (March 14)" RIAA's CEO stated most of the ISPs in the program were set to "begin implementing the program by July 1st."

The program has been called "graduated response." Those suspected of illegal downloading will receive one or two notices. If the downloads do not stop, confirmation notices are sent, and "the accused customers will also be informed of the risks they incur if they don't stop pirating material." Further flags for illegal downloads can bring on a list of penalties, or "mitigation measures" as RIAA calls them, such as slowing down the ISP's customer's Internet connection speed, or web access suspended.

The issues with the plan were brought up in a dottech article, such as false accusations, punishing multiple users on a network when only one is downloading questionable material, and privacy concerns, "What gives the entertainment industry of America the right to bypass these basic American rights?" On the plus side, "none of the ISPs have agreed to permanently shutdown subscribers." Plus "there are bound to be services and software that crop up to beat the system, for those that are really bothered by this." Forbes.com listed Apple as having patented a technique to fool trackers.

The people at the FCA meeting talked about the bill, "so basically the government is trying to screw us again, does that sum it up?" Adrianna Aeghin advised calm, "No ISP is going to analyze all the datastreams in use at any one time, EVEN if they're participating, which I think most won't. So they're mostly only going to look at people they have a reason to expect. … I really don't think this is going to be a problem for SL DJs. … Too many people are in a blind panic over this." One DJ at the begining had wondered if she would have to stop playing music in Second Life. But as the discussion went on, she felt more assured.

The group decided to take a wait and see stance, keeping an eye on the news to see if anyone was going after users for downloading music, and not jumping to conclusions over any rumors and whispers.

In other news, two of the men in Washington who helped defeat SOPA, one Democrat, one Republican, spoke out last month, calling for some form of Internet "Bill of Rights."Sources: cnet.com, dottech.org

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Charlotte Bombastic recently sent us her interview with Ranma Yoshiro, the producer of the Digital Wrestling Roundtable (DWRT). The show had been put on hiatus, but now it's back in business. Charlotte asks what got the show running again, and what does it hope to bring to fans of wrestling on the Grid.

It's a week full of events on the Grid, from Leonardo's Machines showcasing a mix of history and art to the Hair Fair raising funds to give wigs to young cancer survivors. And with the Olympic games in real life, keep an eye out for special events whose time is yet to be announced. And of course our regular selection of book & poetry readings, live and DJ music parties, talk shows, and church sessions.

Filmed by an "Abstract Artist/Jjccc Coronet," JJ Coronet in Second Life, this SL Video made at the Duran Duran area in Second Life will likely be seen by a larger audience outside the Grid, an audience of four billion. It very well may be seen as part of the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games in London on Friday. Duran Duran will be performing at Hyde Park, and there are plans to have footage from this machinima on the screens behind them. If so, it'll be the largest exposure for Second Life video.

"The video I made for Duran Duran at the Olympics will be used for the opening gig seen by 4 billion people. How cool is that. I wonder if the servers can handle a huge influx of newbies on the 27th of July." ... "I spent the better part of the day there filming over 26 gigs of footage 3 hours worth of film that once edited down to 13 minutes gives you a small insight into what happen's at the Duran Duran Sim in Second Life."

Much could still go wrong. The footage could be cut, or not shown at all. But Duran Duran has used Second Life machinima before as part of their act, such as for their tour last year, "this time, we will present the Duran Duran Universe to the whole wide world."

Monday, July 23, 2012

"Use what you have for as long as you can." That's a piece of advice I was given by family when it came to expensive items, such as computers, especially in tough economic times such as now. But with the popularity of mesh, more and more objects and people have appeared as crude shapes. And it seemed like I'd have to get a new computer sooner than I was ready to. Lomgren Smalls did tell me about an alternative to going into debt for a new machine: the Cool VL Viewer.

I was very happy to receive an invitation to the opening of a new exhibit at Art Studio 33 in the Art Warehouse. Mino ( Minollo Menges) has a display of new work. Monroe Snook says of the artist, ”His new direction is a departure from his last exploration and is rich in a wonderful glow."

Looking deeply into the content, you care about the figures represented. "Who are they? What has put them in that position? What are their thoughts?” It does have a rich glow. Mino says he does not take his work too seriously. He has feelings like all humans, and likes to put them out in his art. I tried to ask Mino about his works and he told me, “You know Gemma, since I used to make my works for myself, because I need to catch all many things I've inside my head, I barely think about exhibits, or anything else. I just need to work and I do.”

The images are lovely and the light shines out of each one. The exhibit will be there until August 17. I love to visit the Studio33 exhibits at the Rockcliffe Conservatory. Monroe Snook, the gallerist , always invites outstanding artists to display their works. After you visit this exhibit you may like to TP down to the ground exhibit to see a retrospect of the scupts of Elros Touminen from several years ago, from Monroe’s private collection. They are placed all around the studio 33.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Taken at the Amaretto Breedables camp during the funny hat/big hair walk. Guess he was sitting down, but it looks like he fell. And at a horse camp, what would be a likely cause of being on your behind? ;-)

Longtime readers of SL Newser should recognize this man: JamesT Juno, the founder of Second Life Newspaper, and my onetime boss. Events in real life had put an end to his career here, and has been more or less on hiatus for over two years. I'd only seen him once before besides his appearance at SL Newspaper's goodbye party in June 2010.

James had dropped by to see how things were going on, with both Second Life and the newspaper that had taken up his old dream of covering the news on the Grid. He was happy to hear that not only was the paper continuing to deliver the news daily to an audience, but that multiple sponsors were willing to back it, and the paychecks of it's reporters.

He stuck around for a few minutes, then explained it was time for him to head on, and logged off. When he'll appear again, we don't know. But whatever he's doing, we wish him well.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Last weekend, was one of the largest events in Second Life, the Relay for Life Walk. Nearly 2000 avatars over the course of 24 hours walked the track made up of over 40 sims. One of the Newser team was there not just as a reporter, but also a participant. So many pictures were taken, they had to be split into the two different days.

Friday July 20 was the day that the RFL track was officially on borrowed time. Despite the previous day being the Teardown, many builds were still up. Peeking in time to time, there was little activity, an individual here or there. At around 9PM SL time, I took another look, and saw a gathering at Steelhead. I headed there, and found several of the Steelhead Salmons team, including Tensai Hilra, who greeted me hello. And around them was wreckage.

The team was joining those ending their exhibit with a bang - literally. They had stored the original exhibit, and were re-erecting copies of the larger parts, such as buildings and towers. Once the individual prims were unlinked, physics took over, and the structure came down in a crash, bricks, springs, wall sections, scattering all over.

It wasn't just towers that were rezzed. At one point, a cloud of prims came down around me. I then found the ground around us littered with fish! Salmons to be exact, steelhead salmons, how the Steampunk community, and the Relay team, got it's name. At another point, simple two-prim sheep were raining down from the sky, "Ba-a-a-a-a-a!" One of the Steelheads wolfed out, and looked like the sight of all the sheep put him in shock, like his dream come true had materialized and couldn't believe his fortune at seeing all that mutton.

Besides the Steelheads, I saw a couple other people. They were using the time the track still had to run a few more laps. Their reasons, unknown. Maybe they were enjoying the sights while they were still up, or perhaps running laps for a late friend. They quickly came and went, their images fading away into the distance.

Eventually, it was time for us to part ways, and the Salmons logged off or headed back to Steelhead.

And so, one of Second Life's biggest yearly events truly comes to a close, with hundreds of participants, notably the Passionate Redheads of Sunweavers/HV Community/Angels Estates where the Newser has it's office and neighbors, and the Steelhead Salmons of Steelhead whom have been happily sponsoring the paper. Thank you for the complements of our coverage.

For the Newser, it's the end of a particularly busy time, starting in early June with our Second Anniversary, then the Second Life Ninth Birthday, then a couple important weddings at HV Community and Steelhead, and then the Relay for Life Walk. There were a few things in the news that coverage had to wait on, but we'll get to those. With the SLCC kaput, it'll be some time before our next event that gets the attention of the whole Grid.

Description: In honor of the upcoming Olympics the Flying Tigers Sims are having a 16 day special event! Events will include live DJs, tribute band concerts, a sports themed fashion show, and sporting events! We will also offer merchants and exhibitors a free shop or exhibitors space with 50 prims.

Dates: July 27-August 12, 2012

Signup Info:Please click the link below to signup for this event. If you will have a sporting event on your sim, please drop us info and we will promote it on our sites and at the sporting exhibitors area: http://bit.ly/MYxZ6m

Friday, July 20, 2012

I took a quick trip over to the Hair Fair. The fair is set up to gather all the best hair available in SL and to raise money for “Wigs for Kids.” Having been to one before, I took the advice of the poster board warning of lag and put on an outfit and hair base provided. I also decided to use the “bus.” There is a prim rezzer available for anyone who wants to ride a bus, which is actually a prim on which you sit and edit yourself all over the sims. I tried it for a while but it was too cumbersome.

As you know, Hair creators usually let you wear a demo before you decide to make a purchase. Can someone explain to me what is the sense of handing out a demo box which cant be opened immediatly at the fair to try the hair??? I left that shop quickly. The easiest way to find your favorite vendor is to check the website which lists all the shops and you can get to the slurl by clicking on the name. http://hairfair.wordpress.com/ .

There are some lovely mesh hair styles if your computer supports mesh. I did try on some offerings. You will find styles for children, male and female, as well as adults. The Fair is not just for humans. I ran into an android shopping for hair and hats. July 29 is Bandana Day when you are all invited to wear a bandana in honor of those children who have lost their hair in treatment. You will find a shop with all sorts of bandanas to purchase.

Thursday July 19th was marked as the teardown day for the builds on the Relay for Life track. The sims would be coming down Friday or Saturday, "depending on what the Lab wants to do," and anything still on them might not be returned to their owners. And so, teams and individuals alike headed to their builds, but not to visit.

Sometimes the teardown was made into an event, having the build go down in a blaze of glory. It one case, it was literal. The builder of team "Armada Fights Back" had a kind of pirate base, of which the wooden structures were set afire. When word got around, it wasn't long before someone rezzed a fire truck, drove it over, and began hosing the fire. She was joined by DJ Madonna and one other, whom also turned hoses on the blaze. But not being a scripted fire, the hoses of course had no effect, "these flames must've been fed by pirate booze." Madonna was joked about being out-of-uniform when hosing the flames in her latex, "then again, it's waterproof."

Team "Walking Tall for a Cure," whom were featured in the Newser a couple days ago in a cartoon, also made an event out of their exhibit's end. The place resembled the skeletal beams of a building in progress. Instead of having the place just simply vanish, the builder unlinked the prims and enabled physics, with the result being it collapsed over several seconds. And even after that, the beams kept settling and tumbling down, "they just kept falling." SL Newser didn't get to the event in time to see it happen, but Rastrolinkow Roffo provided some pictures (including the one to the left). The group cleaned up everything, "just like we found it," except for a single kiosk, and headed to Lollygagger Lane.

Other teams also made events out of their builds end. In other cases, the build simply came down. And sometimes there was a reminder left. When the "Dr Who Fans" domed city came down, Victor1st Mornington left a a sign, with a picture of a grinning man over pictures of the various Doctors from the BBC show. There was a bit of minor panic at one point when a rumor began floating around that the film of the track hadn't been done yet. Calm was restored when it was confirmed that the filming had been done on Wednesday.

But as the evening wore on, some of the builds were still up. This included the Passionate Redheads build, of which Lomgren Smalls copied, but delayed taking down. Team "Relay Wizards for Spunky," along with Spunky Young, were partying late in the evening with their build still up. But one way or another, all will soon be gone.

For those wishing to see more, the official photographer of the Relay, IshtarAngel, has a collection of photographs sorted per event of the Relay season: Click Here. And of course there is the Flickr group of all Relay pictures: Here. There's also some TV footage available. The Relay for Life Telethon, a cooperation of Treet.tv, Metaverse Broadcasting, Pookymedia, and Metaworld Broadcasting, which got together to report on "news, interviews, and special events, such as a snail race." The recordings can still be seen at : http://www.livestream.com/virtualrfl .

The last official event, the "Wrap-Up Party" in which next year's theme will be unveiled, will be in August. For the Passionate Redheads, there will be a team meeting sometime in the near future to discuss this year's troubles and what direction and strategies they should take for next year.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

On Wednesday, the final day of the Relay track before the takedown, people were going about seeing a few more sights, taking a few more pictures, and of course there was what's become a Relay tradition in Second Life since 2010: the "Flood Party." Group announcements from Trader1 Whiplash let people know.

Please be advised the grid-wide weather service has posted a severe weather watch for numerous RFL sims this evening, possibly around 6 PM SLT.

A severe weather watch means you can expect rain, possibly heavy at times, high winds, and localized flooding in low-lying areas of the RFL track.

People were gathering at T1Radio's Studio in the RFL Acceptance sim, the station playing music. And as 6 PM rolled around, the rain began to fall, and the water began to cover the road. DJ Madonna joked this was one reason why she wore a latex rubber suit. People danced away, some sporting ducky inflatable tubes. As time went on, the water got a little deeper. Fortunately for anyone without a swimmer AO, it didn't match the ten meters of the first flood party in 2010, but on the road it did get waist deep.

Eventually, the waters receded, the party came to a close, and everyone went their seperate ways, some going about the track for one more look at the builds. Thursday is the takedown day in which the builds come down. Come Friday or Saturday, the sims will fade away for another year.

Osgrid will be celebrating it’s 5th birthday on Friday 20th July until Tuesday 24th July 2012, which is going to be awesome and bigger than ever before. This is another major milestone for Osgrid to reach it’s 5th birthday. OSG5B has 7 regions dedicated to the birthday with OSG5B exhibits to visit and there will be many live music performances.

Opensim got some discussion when it first came out, and since then the various Opensim-based grids such as Inworldz and Spot3D get some occasional discussion. A few designers, such as M&M's 10 Gooson have set up shop there, and small communities have sprung up in these worlds. While some places, such as Raglan, have set up satellite locations, only a very few have left Second Life for good in favor of Opensim, usually out of frustration with Linden Lab and its policies. Others go back and forth. I've talked to more than one person who's expressed the opinion they made a place there in case one day Linden Lab finally drives Second Life into the ground.

I occasionally see an Opensim advocate speaking out in the comment section after an article about Linden Lab/Second Life troubles, insisting about the "inevitability" of Second Life's fall and Opensim taking its place. But after five years, there is little sign of this happening. Despite Linden Lab's blunders, they've kept the market on virtual worlds. More often then not, when my friends go somewhere other than Second Life, it's to World of Warcraft or more recently Minecraft.

Still, quite a bit of work has been done in these places. And Second Life residents can take heart that if one day their Grid should up and vanish, there are other places one can make their virtual homes in.

Sent by a "Raeyn Srnah," the Staypuft Marshmallow man rumbles through RFL Strength. Someone wondered if it might be after Holocluck Henley, but he felt from where it was, the lap theme would be over before it got close, "We can always call the Flying Tigers."

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A few times while going down the track, came across this, someone was inactive. Some people really did pull all-nighters at the Relay Weekend, so just how many of these people tried to do the same, but didn't quite make it?

Gemma Cleanslate recently found out about about what some kid avatar fans regard as their best time in Second Life: Camp Hardknock. Heading over, what she saw was a place with a wide range of experiences for the kids. The place is guided by the counselors of course, of which doing thing behind their back is a favorite pasttime. Gemma took an in-depth look at the place, and the fun the SL kids had.

The Relay Track doesn't have much longer before it's down. Wednesday's the last day to get a good look at the place. And what awaits the visitor, quite a bit.

At RFL Reflections, the sim is mostly water. And there's a number of boats one can use, from a sailboat, to a kayak, to jet skis. There's also a jetski course to the south, though the slower boats aren't affected by the obstacles. To the north, the ocean floor has a bit of scenery, as well as an island with waterfalls. Going into the waterfalls are caverns, some with picturesque views. And there's a small Second Life Coast Guard station nearby, where one can look at the craft.

In the eastern half of RFL Overcome and the western of RFL Manage, there's a huge laboratory. Just about everything is built to giant scale, the tables, the equipment, making normal avatars look mouse-sized. For some Relayers, it brought back memories of the classic "Greenies" sim from the earlier days in Second Life.

Impromptu parties are still going on at the track. There really hasn't been any hard schedule for them, though occasionally one will see a star on the map saying there'll be an event there at a certain time. One can run into Relay noteables there, such as Trader1 Whiplash, Bain Finch, DJ Madona, Lomgren Smalls, and others.

There was one party for Wednesday I did hear the time for, though not the place: the Flood Party. It's supposed to start sometime between 4 and 6 PM SL time, of which one of the sims gets flooded. Residents are advised to bring their own inner tubes or swimmer AOs.